Leverage News

Leverage may be gone, but Beth Riesgraf is still very much around. The actress followed up her five-season run as Parker on the TNT caper drama with a three-episode stint as Maeve Donovan, a new love interest for Dr. Spencer Reid, on CBS's Criminal Minds. Beth recently visited BFTV to talk about her arc on Criminal Minds, what it was like to join another series, and her parting words for Leverage's devoted fans.

"Matthew Gubler called me to see if I would be interested in doing a spot on the show and if I was even going to be available. The dates worked out perfect with Leverage," said Rie...

If you're a TV fan, you've experienced the pain of your favorite show being cancelled at least once. Probably more than once. Yet there are a rare few that sting more than others - the ones that still get on your nerves every time they come to mind. They're the shows you always miss and never forget. As we prepare to look forward to new TV, here's my list of the top 10 TV cancellations I'm still raving about.

In order of how upsetting their demise was:

1. Sports Night (ABC)

I am never, ever going to let this one go. Ever. I don't care that Aaron Sorkin went on to great success with The...

July has been a great month for TV home-video releases, from the eagerly anticipated Star Trek: The Next Generation Blu-Ray to fan favorites like Burn Notice, White Collar and Leverage. Here's an inside look at all those titles, as well as Starz's Boss and Acorn Media's James May's 20th Century.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season One [Blu-Ray]: This is the release that Star Trek fans have been waiting for. As we celebrate Next Generation's 25th anniversary, its inaugural season looks near-perfect on Blu-Ray, down to astonishing levels of detail in special-effects shots. There's clearl...

He's back! Tonight, Timothy Hutton returns to lead TNT's Leverage crew in a whole new season of capers and crimes - but before the action starts, he returned to chat with me about what it's like to have played Nate Ford for five seasons and what fans can expect from the show's upcoming episodes.

"It really feels amazing to be doing this show and going into the fifth season," he said. "We were all talking about [it] the other day- when we finish [season five] we'll have done 77 episodes. That's pretty incredible these days, for a TV show to be able to do that many, and most importa...

The final Harry Potter movie and Martin Scorsese's Hugo will lead the way at the 2012 Saturn Awards after scooping 10 nominations apiece.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Hugo will compete with Immortals, The Muppets, Midnight in Paris and Thor to be named Best Fantasy Film at the prize giving, which recognizes achievement in movie genres such as sci-fi and horror.

Filmmaker J.J. Abrams' Super 8 nabbed eight nods and Captain America: The First Avenger scooped seven, while The Adventures of Tintin and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol both picked up six nominations.

Episode two of Justified's second season is a solid standalone that also continues to hand us pieces of a masterful bigger picture.

Last week's episode ("The Gunfighter") started Justified's third season off strong. "Cut Ties" keeps up the standard, but in a different way.

Raylan wakes up in Winona and Gary's house, quickly mistaken for Gary by the realtor who's showing people around. Have a joke about Winona cheating on him with a realtor again. Once Raylan wakes up and pulls himself together, he visits Boyd in prison and actually asks him for relationship advice. Boyd points out that ...

As Leverage nears the end of season four, we're treated to a solid stand-alone episode that changes Nate's life and guarantees there will be sparks in the season finale.

Twelve hours before a situation at the United States Patent Office in Virginia, Nate is confronting Jack Latimer (Leon Rippy) at his office. It seems the guy Latimer got to do his dirty work after Nate turned him down was none other than Nate's con-man father Jimmy (Tom Skerritt). Now, unsurprisingly, Jimmy is in trouble, and so Nate gets involved, with his team inviting themselves along for the bumpy ride.

This week, we get to see the other half of the story that started last week on Leverage - and it's even better than the first.

Hurley (Drew Powell), last seen in "The Twelve-Step Job," rolls into town while Nate is playing poker with Hardison, Eliot, Detective Bonanno (Robert Blanche) and one of Eliot's friends (Sean Faris). The poor guy has no idea that the nuns he's working for are not above board until Nate saves him from being shot to death. Unfortunately for Nate, hiding Hurley leads him right into a meeting for an addiction support group.

Leverage breaks format for the second straight week with "The Girls' Night Out Job," and it's not as successful as "The Office Job" but it's the first half of what should be an interesting two-part escapade.

The show opens with everyone pointing out to Nate that he doesn't have a social life. Even socially challenged Parker has plans with Peggy from the first season's "Juror Number Six Job" - if you count checking out someone's blind date as having plans. Said blind date Craig (Wil Traval) has a bit of a James Bond act going on, but comes with a long rap sheet. That's enough for Pa...

I've been only a casual viewer of The Office - but this week's Leverage, which spoofs the popular NBC comedy, makes for a pretty great day at the office.

The folks at the Good Cheer Greeting Card Company aren't all in a good mood. A whistleblower comes to Nate saying that the new owner is going to run the company into the ground, taking the local economy with it. Team Leverage arrives on the scene posing as efficiency experts, with Nate throwing around a good dozen buzzwords no one understands.

They're not the only guests, though: a documentary film crew - led by a guy named Gunthe...

TNT's Leverage crew returned tonight with the first of seven remaining season four episodes - and "The Experimental Job" made me glad to have them back.

When a homeless veteran dies in the middle of a party full of rich kids, the police write it off as a heart attack. His daughter thinks differently; she tells Nate and Eliot that her dad was part of a university sleep study involving PTSD and she's suspicious.

She has a reason to be: Hardison singles out a well-connected, BMW-driving kid named Travis (Jonathan Keltz), who also happens to be a member of the university's "Order of...

Tonight, TNT's Leverage returns to finish out its fourth season - and stars Beth Riesgraf (Parker) and Timothy Hutton (Nate) joined me recently to talk about what's headed our way.

Leverage was one of TNT's early successes in scripted television, following The Closer and Saving Grace but predating the likes of Dark Blue, Hawthorne, Men of a Certain Age, Memphis Beat and Rizzoli & Isles. Led by Academy Award winner Hutton, the talented ensemble cast - which also includes Angel's Christian Kane, Coupling's Gina Bellman and Friday Night Lights' Aldis Hodge - has led us through four season...

I'm actually disappointed that we've reached the Leverage summer finale. The first half of season four has been so good that it's sad to take a break. It isn't a surprise that the series breaks on a high note.

We're treated to the return of Nate's ex-colleague and current nemesis - but fan favorite - Jim Sterling (Mark Sheppard), who's the client this week. He wants Team Leverage to steal a vital piece of nuclear technology to keep it from falling into foreign hands. It doesn't take a genius to realize that the situation must be bad if Sterling is asking Nate to get involved, and t...

If you've seen the movie Boiler Room, you've got a fair idea of tonight's second Leverage. Minus Vin Diesel. However, there is chocolate, and one heck of a final twist, so it's all good.

The bad guy is Greg Sherman (The Shield star David Rees Snell), who gives bombastic speeches about being "on top of the food chain" because he's that corny. Unfortunately, Hardison's cover gets blown quickly - it's really not a good week to be Alec Hardison! - and he's forced to spin a tale about a faux play with Sophie playing a mark known as "the chocolate whisperer." Now that would be a TV show I...

The first of two all-new Leverage installments tonight looks, at first glance, to be a take-off on the recent Ryan Reynolds flick Buried. How did Hardison end up trapped in a coffin in a cemetery? That's one heck of an open.

It has something to do with a funeral home run by Darlene Wickett (Anne-Marie Johnson, last seen on Fairly Legal), who likes to swipe money at the most inappropriate time and hide it in her spiffy wall safe. The team's attempt to search the funeral home takes a turn when they realize Darlene is also stealing the identities of the deceased. Nate decides to give Da...

It's impossible for every television episode to be novel. This week, Leverage tries to put a spin on a fairly common idea, and only half succeeds.

Team Leverage is recruited to retrieve a valuable computer chip that was stolen from its creator by his high-powered boss. Corporate thievery isn't a new story; Fairly Legal did a similar tale in its first season. What gives the episode some spin is that we're asked to feel some sympathy for the culprit - because we learn about the death of his wife and meet his predictably ill-tempered daughter Molly. (Is there any other kind?) While t...

How do you make this already strong season of Leverage even better? Bring in Danny Glover. His appearance is not a stunt, but a bonus as a talented cast continues to shine.

One of Nate's old IYS colleagues comes to him with a story about a Van Gogh painting that went missing during World War II. The guy believes said painting is now in the custody of Charles Lawson (played by Glover), and wants Nate and his team to find it before some nastier types do. For whatever reason, Lawson decides to confide in Parker, plunging the team back into the 1940's, complete with Hardison playing a ...

At a time when many shows begin to fade, Leverage has mixed things up and brought us episodes outside of the show's usual comfort zone. "The Fifteen Minutes Job" continues that great trend, giving us a bad guy that's gleefully fun to hate at the center of a quirky caper to bring him down.

This week's bad guy is an evidence-planting weasel named Rockwell (played oh so well by Mad Men's Michael Gladis, though I admit that it took me a minute to shake off his heartbreaking guest appearance in the Law & Order: SVU episode "Branded" from last season). Slimy in a deadpan, almost disgruntl...

It was a dark and stormy night...and Nate Ford was getting a gun aimed at him by a detective. This week's Leverage opens like a classic mystery, and is an enjoyable romp for all those of us who wasted lots of time playing Clue.

Three days earlier, he and Sophie are meeting with a lawyer who's lost her job trying to expose shady construction that's led to plenty of harm. The guy responsible, Morris Beck (that's Boy Meets World's William Russ), is having a murder-mystery party at his house, so our team dresses up as literary detectives to infiltrate the shindig. (Check out Nate coming...

Leverage has been one of my favorite escapist pleasures since the pilot. I watched it and just knew this was a show I'd want to talk about every week. Four seasons in, while the show isn't as addicting as it once was, it's still a fun way to spend an hour of my summer weekends.

Less than two weeks after San Lorenzo, Nate pulls the team back together on behalf of a woman whose husband disappeared during a climb of Alaska's Mt. Kibari (in reality, that's Mount Hood). She suspects foul play on the part of one of her spouse's business partners, a rich guy who's been busy with mortgag...

Leverage returns tonight for its fourth season on TNT - and Academy Award-winning star Timothy Hutton returned to Digital Airwaves to chat about where the show has come and where it's headed. Read on for his insight on filming tonight's season premiere (mild spoilers!) and his favorite moments from cons gone by.

Where is Nate headed in the fourth season? We left him in quite an interesting place...

Timothy Hutton: Well, every season that we started it’s been interesting and challenging to approach Nate and see where we left him when we last saw him. This year, it’s especially kind ...

Timothy Hutton stars in "Leverage," a darkly comic drama about a group of criminals who have a thoroughly modern take on the concept of social justice.

Led by Nate Ford (Hutton), who has experience as an insurance investigator, the team extort money from targets who really deserve it - people who have harmed others themselves.

But robbing the innocent is a very different thing from robbing the guilty in the minds of these warped Robin Hoods, and with a team comprised of a mastermind, a cat burglar, a con-woman, a hacker, and a veteran thief, they're prepared to exert their moral philoso...

As much as you should be going to the beach, catching a hot concert or spending time with friends at outdoor barbeques this summer, there is also a lot going on indoors too. We’re talking about what’s going on inside on the television. Summer television shows aren’t always about the addicting and sometimes laughable reality programs since stations like TNT and USA have stepped up their game with shows like The Closer and Burn Notice. As much as we were anticipating the return of Mad Men this summer only to be disappointed by the news that the premiere is delayed until 2012, we found a few m...

(*Firstly, if you don't get the joke in the title, visit Failblog. I'll wait.)

There's been a tremendous response to my Tuesday article about the reasons why I'm not excited about TV romance. It's been really awesome to hear from fans of various shows and pairings, who wrote in with their own opinions and ideas, and helped create a great discussion of the topic and the issues surrounding it - most importantly, with respect for me and for each other.

As is natural and perfectly fine, there were some people who disagreed with my lack of enthusiasm. One reader suggested that romantic r...

Picking up where "The Big Bang Job" left off (two-hour season finales are in vogue this week!), "The San Lorenzo Job" opens with Nate and Damian Moreau exchanging blows.

Two weeks earlier, the team's talking about all the things they've gotten Moreau blamed for, but Nate still isn't happy. He asks the team to help him wipe Moreau off the board for good. Eliot has a friend in San Lorenzo, however, and they're able to lean on him for help; he reveals that the country's president is bankrolled by Moreau, which is why he's running against President Rivera. As they watch, though, Moreau'...

It's a sad week for TV: first Burn Notice ends its season (albeit spectacularly) and now it's time to wrap up Leverage.

The show knows how to make an entrance - with Timothy Hutton making an awesome one in a very sweet sports car to meet the woman known only as "the Italian" in a parking garage. She tells him that Damian Moreau is coming. No, that's not ominous at all.

It's also totally normal to hang out by yourself in a darkened Department of Defense lab in Langley. That's what the new client is doing, at least until Parker and Eliot kidnap her and fake her death. As Nate explains...

Michael Cudlitz may be television's most recognized law enforcement official. He's played cops, sheriffs, FBI agents, and even done voice work for the popular Call of Duty video game series. Currently, he's polishing up his LAPD badge for another tour of duty as Officer John Cooper on Southland, the gritty cop drama rescued from NBC and moving to TNT for its third season. Before Southland returns on January 4, Michael sat down with me to talk about coming back to the series and his long history behind a badge.

These last few months must have been a real roller-coaster ride for you, to b...

Since tonight means the first of three all-new episodes of TNT's Leverage, I thought I'd pull out the Leverage Role Playing Game for you this afternoon.

If you're a regular reader, you'll know that I playtested the quickstart version of this game a few months ago and enjoyed it. Needless to say, I was excited to get my hands on the full version. As I mentioned then, Leverage is a unique choice for a roleplaying game line given that most of the RPGs we see in mainstream retail (not necessarily in hobby shops but in places like your local bookstore) tend to be science fiction or fantasy p...

Are you ready to get even? Next week, Leverage is back to finish out its third season, starting with this crisp outing that sees the team taking on Santa Claus as a client.

Santa's real name is Frank, and he's a mall Santa who, along with several of his colleagues, has been recently fired by a villainous mall manager (the underrated Dave Foley of NewsRadio fame) who'd rather replace them with criminals. Even a miserable Nate can't turn down Santa, and so the team sets out to restore Frank's reputation and expose what's hiding in the mall. It's an opportunity for the team to get into ...